Southwest Connecticut and neighboring counties in NY State are still recovering from the collapse of the financial services industry, the dominant industry in the region, employing one in ten residents. But even for the decade prior to that, establishment and employment growth had been flat in the region as a whole, with considerable economic distress in cities like Bridgeport, where the poverty rate has been stuck at around 21 percent.

The infrastructure for economic development is not very robust, because past growth in financial services made it less essential. There is currently little existing capacity to promote business retention and expansion, and no prominent research institution to promote technology transfers into new businesses and innovation.

In 2009, a consortium of 14 communities in Fairfield County, CT developed a strategy designed to stimulate economic growth, job creation, and individual economic opportunity in the region. The initiative, “One Coast, One Future,” was led by the Bridgeport Regional Business Council and the Business Council of Fairfield County, in cooperation with the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce. The steering committee was broadly representative of the region as a whole with representatives from business, economic development, higher education, workforce development, and local government.

The strategy called for the creation of a regional economic development council, made up of representatives from each of 14 municipalities, to coordinate economic development efforts in the region, reporting to a regional steering committee. However, there has been little follow through on the implementation of this CEDS plan.

Despite the sluggish economy, there is some growth in health care and green jobs in the region. Local community colleges have formed a task force with six local hospitals to address their workforce needs. Similarly, a regional project team of energy employers, educators, and non-profits has been formed to support the growth of green jobs. The region has received grants totaling more than $7 million to train individuals for health care and green jobs.

To support those efforts, and building on the success of their WIRED initiative, Workplace Inc. (Southwest Connecticut’s regional workforce development board) is using AWI funding to hire “career advisors” to become experts in the healthcare and Green industries. Workplace Inc. has used O*NET, industry specific websites and local experts to help train their career advisors to provide group and individual orientations for green and health care careers prior to one-on-one assessments to determine interests, experience and abilities. The career advisors are training One-Stop staff and have created resource guides for those staff, which are updated periodically. They are also collaborating with CT and NY Departments of Labor and their Business Services Units to build more relationships with health care and green businesses to facilitate access to job opportunities in those industries for dislocated workers who complete training programs.

Opportunities for dislocated workers are particularly important, since there is a growing pool of older, experienced workers among the long-term unemployed in the region. Some communities have been particularly hard hit. In response, Workplace Inc. has launched a Campaign of Hope that focuses on encouraging employers to hire experienced workers, rather than young workers who tend to be less expensive because of lower health care costs. The campaign seeks to overcome the stigma associated with being unemployed for a long period of time, and to maintain the skills and morale of the long-term unemployed by helping them remain connected to education, training, and support.